How did a one-acre fire on the Chimney Tops trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park transform into a massive firestorm? Take an inside look at the events leading up to the November 2016 Gatlinburg wildfires that claimed 14 lives.
Angela Gosnell/News Sentinel

Michael Reed and wife Constance Reed. Constance and daughters Chloe and Lily died in the Gatlinburg wildfires.(Photo: Submitted)

"My wife called me and said the flames were across from the house," Michael Reed tells a Sevier County E-911 dispatcher. "I told her to call 911, and I haven’t heard from her since."

He never heard from her again. Reed's wife, Constance, and two daughters, Chloe and Lily, died in the Nov. 28, 2016, Gatlinburg wildfire, trapped by flames as they ran from their home in the Chalet Village community. Eleven others died as well — some from smoke and flame, one from a heart attack, another from a fallen tree limb — in the space of a few hours after high-speed winds fanned a mountaintop blaze inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to fury and sent the flames racing through town.

A federal lawsuit filed Thursday on behalf of Reed and others seeks millions of dollars in damages from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for failing to contain the fire, which burned for five days before it left the park boundaries, and failing to warn the residents in its path in time.

Rules, warnings ignored

The lawsuit lists Reed and James England, who lost his home on Greystone Heights Road, as lead plaintiffs and leaves the door open for all victims of the fire to join. Attorney Sidney Gilreath said he expects the number of claimants could top 300 people. Damages sought include more than $15 million for Reed and $1.3 million for England but will most likely grow.

Flames consume the River House motel at the corner of River and Ski Mountain roads the night of the Nov. 28, 2016, Gatlinburg wildfire.(Photo: Tennessee Highway Patrol)

The complaint cites two after-action reports — one by a park service review team and another by an outside consultant, ABS Consulting — that faulted the park's response to the fire as casual, shortsighted and too little, too late.

The park's fire management officer, Greg Salansky, and "park senior leadership were not only unprepared but unqualified to manage the fire," ignored repeated National Weather Service warnings of high winds and dry conditions, failed to notify Gatlinburg firefighters and police in time, broke their own firefighting rules and park service policy, and bear direct responsibility for the 14 deaths and more than $1 billion in property damage caused by the fire, Gilreath wrote in the lawsuit.

Greg Salansky is fire management officer for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.(Photo: National Park Service Fire and Aviation Management)

'By policy, the National Park Service does not comment on active litigation," spokeswoman Dana Soehn said.

The fire's origin

The fire began Nov. 23, 2016, the day before Thanksgiving, when Salansky spotted smoke coming from the park's Chimney Tops peaks at the tail end of one of the driest fire seasons. He initially chose to try to contain the fire rather than fight it, despite forecasts by the National Weather Service that warned of high winds and "critically dry" conditions.

Smoke shrouds the peaks of the Chimney Tops inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Nov. 26, 2016. A fire discovered on the north peak the day before Thanksgiving had reached its third day.(Photo: National Park Service)

Salansky didn't attack the roughly acre-sized fire directly, didn't dig containment lines initially and waited four days to order water drops by airplane and helicopter. Most of the fire crew's staff was on vacation due to the holiday. No one called them in.

Salansky devoted his efforts instead to containing the fire inside a 410-acre box in hopes of coming rain — "a debacle of historic proportions, made worse by innumerable and repeated failures by Salansky and park officials to adhere to settled fire-management policies," Gilreath wrote in the lawsuit. Policy called for a second officer to review Salansky's decisions, but no such check or balance took place, with top officials like park Superintendent Cassius Cash mostly deferring to Salansky.

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Cassius Cash, Great Smoky Mountains National Park superintendent, answers questions from the media after the release of a fire review report at a news conference at park headquarters Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017. The Chimney Tops 2 fire merged with other fires, causing 14 deaths and millions of dollars of damage to Gatlinburg in November 2016.(Photo: Caitie McMekin / News Sentinel)

Salansky didn't assign any monitors to watch the fire overnight, so rangers ended up caught by surprise when they discovered embers carried by the wind had started new fires the morning of Nov. 28, including a fire near the Twin Creeks Picnic Pavilion, within a mile and a half of the Gatlinburg city limits.

'Critical failure'

Park service policy calls for placing protection of human life, including neighboring residents, as the first firefighting priority. But Gatlinburg and Sevier County officials didn't learn about the fire until the morning of Nov. 28 when a Gatlinburg fire captain called Salansky about the clouds of smoke hanging over town — and didn't learn until 12:30 p.m. in a meeting with park officials the fire was headed their way.

"The most critical failure of all was the complete lack of early notice to local officials," Gilreath wrote in the lawsuit.

Alice Hagler, who had been missing from her Chalet Village home, was confirmed dead by authorities Friday afternoon. Her son, Lyle Wood, had told friends and family that she had perished in the fire on Wednesday evening. Submitted

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Early attempts to build firebreaks focused on a single portion of the city — Mynatt Park and surrounding neighborhoods in the southeast corner at the national park's edge — based on recommendations from Salansky and other national park officials.

Gatlinburg Fire Chief Greg Miller sent out calls for aid from other fire departments, eventually drawing 3,535 firefighters from around the country. Most of that aid didn't arrive for hours, and officials at all levels, concerned with protecting Mynatt Park, failed to consider a potential threat to Chalet Village and other communities across town to the southwest.

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Gatlinburg Fire Chief Greg Miller reflects on the decisions made during the response to the deadly Nov. 28, 2016, Gatlinburg wildfires at Gatlinburg City Hall on Nov. 6, 2017.(Photo: Saul Young / News Sentinel)

By 6 p.m., winds topped 60 mph — maybe cracked triple digits by some accounts — and sent the flames hopping roads and creeks out of the park and into Gatlinburg. The fire grew and forked to fold around the city on both sides, with the western half of town undefended. Most of those who died were on that side of town, just outside the city limits.

Constance Reed and her daughters tried to run from their home after Michael Reed became caught in traffic fleeing the fire. The mother called E-911 to beg for help, but the line went dead.

The lawsuit describes Reed navigating back roads and driving through clouds of smoke in a vain effort to try to reach his family.

"Mr. Reed got out of his van and screamed his wife's name, but there was no answer," Gilreath wrote.

Authorities found the bodies of mother and daughters days later in a nearby home where they'd apparently tried to take cover.

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Richard T. Ramsey and Sue Ramsey hold hands while looking at the skyline from the remains of their house of 41 years, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, in Gatlinburg, Tenn. They safely evacuated as fire approached Monday evening. Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean

Shari Deason holds 14 month-old son William outside of the Rocky Top Sports Center, serving as a Red Cross shelter, next door to the TEMA command center at Gatlinburg-Pittman High School in Gatlinburg, Tenn. Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016. More than 2000 people have checked in to various shelters. Deason said she had to leave all of her belongings behind when evacuated from a hotel overnight. AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL

Polo Gutierrez climbs onto the foundation of a destroyed home to try and see if his Gatlinburg apartment building is still standing on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016, in Gatlinburg. Gutierrez fled his apartment with other residents as fires approached the previous night. Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean

Glenn Stocks uncovers a filing cabinet in the rubble of his family's bed and breakfast Tudor Inn on Dec. 8, 2016, on West Holly Ridge Road in Gatlinburg. The home was destroyed in November's wildfires. CAITIE MCMEKIN/NEWS SENTINEL

Rebecca Bell sifts through the remains of a car outside of her home, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, in Gatlinburg, Tenn. Bell and her family evacuated on Monday when smoke started building up. Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean

Allan Rivera holds onto his son Nathan, 23 months, as he looks at the remains of their home for the first time, Monday, Dec. 5, 2016, in Gatlinburg, Tenn. The family evacuated from their rental cabin before it was completely destroyed in last Monday's fires. Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean, Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean

Lelin Romero feeds her 3-month-old son Ethan, in the family's van as they visit the remains of their home for the first time, Monday, Dec. 5, 2016, in Gatlinburg, Tenn. The family evacuated from their rental cabin before it was completely destroyed in last Monday's fires. Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean, Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean

Roaring Fork Baptist Church congregants embrace as they pray together during a Sunday morning service at Camp Smoky in Sevierville on Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016. Roaring Fork Baptist Church was destroyed in the fire that swept through Gatlinburg on Monday night. BRIANNA PACIORKA/NEWS SENTINEL

U.S. Forest Service firefighter Chad Heck, from the Colville National Forest in Washington state, looks up at a fire damaged tree in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Gatlinburg, Tenn., Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016. Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean

Gatlinburg mayor Mike Werner looks out over the view of the ruins of his home of more than 20 years atop Greystone Heights Road on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2016, in downtown Gatlinburg. AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENT

The city had no mass warning system and relied on officers and firefighters to make notifications in person. Police and firefighters raced from door to door to evacuate homes, but the fire outran them. Flames in some places forced fire crews into retreat, and some hydrants ran dry due to lack of water pressure.

Authorities ultimately charged two teenage boys from Anderson County with starting the fire by playing with matches. State prosecutors dropped the case, and federal prosecutors have given no public sign of pursuing charges.

City and county officials refused to release records on the fire for months, citing the Juvenile Court case against the boys, but finally complied after the case was dropped.